International super lottery to create jackpots of $500 million or more

Sep 12, 2008, 12:56 am (58 comments)

International

A massive, multi-country lottery with $500 million jackpots is expected to launch within four years

Camelot, operator of the United Kingdom's lottery, has been in talks with firms in 48 countries, including Australia and the US, to launch a global draw.

The plans involve a monthly game creating up to 100 millionaires plus a once-a-year super prize — likely to be on a holiday such as New Year.

They are being drawn up in response to the public's love of big-prize draws.

The National lottery launched in 1994 under the phrase 'It could be you'.  It has seen Lotto ticket sales fall by £105 million to £2.75 billion (US$4.84 billion) last year, its lowest sales in a decade.

Meanwhile Euro Millions, which operates across nine different countries, has seen its UK sales up by 10 percent to just under £500 million (US$880 million).

Euro Millions' biggest jackpot was £125 million (US$220 million) in 2006, compared to the domestic draw's top prize of £42 million (US$74 million).  However, the comparison does not take into account the fact that Euro Millions is much harder to win than the domestic UK Lotto game.

David Forrest, Professor of Economics at the Centre for the Study of Gambling at the University of Salford said, "With a lottery you are selling a dream to the public.

"If a product comes along with a bigger dream, people will switch to it."

According to the British professor, American lottery players abandon state lotto jackpot games when a multi-state game is available.

"In the US, if you offer people a multi-state game with a bigger payout, they don't bother with the local lottery."

A spokesman for Camelot said plans to develop the international lottery were going well, but added there are no plans to drop the national draw.

"'Over the last five years there has been an 8.5 percent (£391.8 million) increase in sales.

"This helped overall returns to Good Causes rise to more than £1.35 billion (US$2.38 billion), bringing the total raised by National Lottery players to over £21 billion."

The National Lottery will be contributing almost £2.2 billion (US$3.9 billion) towards the London 2012 Olympics, of which £750 million will come from specially designated lottery games.

Telegraph

Comments

Abdi's avatarAbdi

FrownIt's an excellent and a very ambitious idea-though I suggest that we could had loved to know which type of a game it will be.

Many people around the globe ,have found a more easier ways to win the lotterey-with the help of Gail Howard Books and the LP .

Those who dont win are the ones 'who play without considering certain factors as outlayed very clearly in Certain Lotto Books and the LP.

Back to the topic....I think a global draw will be a great idea.   

petergrfn

Sounds interesting.  I wonder if it's a ball drop game or computerized?  I don't envy the people who have to set up the logistics for this game.   Where to have the draw?  do you more the machine? Is payment Anuuity or a Cash Option?   Would just be insane to win that much money!

JimmySand9

I bet "Pumpi" is jumping up and down and giggling like a schoolgirl (no offense), he's wanted this for so long.

ThatScaryChick's avatarThatScaryChick

Quote: Originally posted by JimmySand9 on Sep 12, 2008

I bet "Pumpi" is jumping up and down and giggling like a schoolgirl (no offense), he's wanted this for so long.

LOL I was thinking the same thing.

pumpi76

I don't know why don't they call it Global Lottery instead of International Lottery....Anyways i disapprove of this lottery, because i thought they were paying billions and billions of dollars as jackpot...For example i thought 1 winner was going to win 20 billion dollars for example...And that's the way it should be...

Japan has a Jumbo Draw that pays 350 million dollars (more than half of the 500 million) and that's just 1 country...So the entire world should the winner should get paid like 5 or 7 billion dollars...Why don't they have it...

Honestly when i first heard of it i thought it was 1 trillion dollars they were paying as jackpot...

Anyways this people always do the lotteries to suit themselves they do it because they are affraid of reprecursions...

This Global lottery surely can give someone 5 billion dollars as jackpot, but the people in power do not want that...They are affraid of selecting a nobody to have that much power...Is called prejudism/racism whatever you want to call it...Anyways nothing coming from England is good...

500 million the U.S can get a 500 million jackpot once or twice a year if they combined Powerball & Megamillions and join all the states remaining and charge 2 dollars per ticket...And actually it will not get to 500 million but instead it will get to 1 billion 500 million at least in the USA......So what are you telling me? that the U.S can draw bigger jackpot than the entire world combined...And this jackpot is going to cost how much? 50 dollars a ticket...So again what are you telling me...

wizeguy's avatarwizeguy

I'm undecided on this yet. They didn't provide much detail on the proposed lottery. And what's with one big draw a year? Will tickets for that draw cost more? Will they set aside money from regular draws for it?

Jimhowlett

Quote: Originally posted by pumpi76 on Sep 12, 2008

I don't know why don't they call it Global Lottery instead of International Lottery....Anyways i disapprove of this lottery, because i thought they were paying billions and billions of dollars as jackpot...For example i thought 1 winner was going to win 20 billion dollars for example...And that's the way it should be...

Japan has a Jumbo Draw that pays 350 million dollars (more than half of the 500 million) and that's just 1 country...So the entire world should the winner should get paid like 5 or 7 billion dollars...Why don't they have it...

Honestly when i first heard of it i thought it was 1 trillion dollars they were paying as jackpot...

Anyways this people always do the lotteries to suit themselves they do it because they are affraid of reprecursions...

This Global lottery surely can give someone 5 billion dollars as jackpot, but the people in power do not want that...They are affraid of selecting a nobody to have that much power...Is called prejudism/racism whatever you want to call it...Anyways nothing coming from England is good...

500 million the U.S can get a 500 million jackpot once or twice a year if they combined Powerball & Megamillions and join all the states remaining and charge 2 dollars per ticket...And actually it will not get to 500 million but instead it will get to 1 billion 500 million at least in the USA......So what are you telling me? that the U.S can draw bigger jackpot than the entire world combined...And this jackpot is going to cost how much? 50 dollars a ticket...So again what are you telling me...

$1 Trillion is way too high, considering the US GDP is $12 trillion and the world's is closer to $55 trillion

But I agree...if there is going to be an international jackpot it should be in the billions.

The problem, however, is we think our multi-state lotteries have bad odds, imagine what an international lottery would be like.

I'd rather have a national lottery, perhaps by merging MegaMillions and Powerball. Start at $40 million and go up. We'd approach $1 billion jackpots and the odds would probably approach 300 million to one.

pumpi76

Quote: Originally posted by Jimhowlett on Sep 12, 2008

$1 Trillion is way too high, considering the US GDP is $12 trillion and the world's is closer to $55 trillion

But I agree...if there is going to be an international jackpot it should be in the billions.

The problem, however, is we think our multi-state lotteries have bad odds, imagine what an international lottery would be like.

I'd rather have a national lottery, perhaps by merging MegaMillions and Powerball. Start at $40 million and go up. We'd approach $1 billion jackpots and the odds would probably approach 300 million to one.

i think the GDP of the world is a lot more than 55 trillion...But i am not here to argue..I don't know actually but i think is like 70 trillion but i may be wrong..

I don't think people are going to pay attention to the odds, they are going to pay attention to the jackpot the bigger the better provided that is Once a year...But one thing i think will happen is that they will play mostly 1 or 2 tickets not more than that if the tickets cost 50 dollars...

Spare Change

I am against any mergings of these multi state lotteries.  If anything I wish some of these states would scale down and disconnect from these multi state lotteries.  Powerball and Megamillions cut into the state jackpots.  Here in CT, the lotto jackpot takes so long to get up to even 2 or 3 million because so many people are playing Powerball.  And on top of that hardly ever is there a Powerball winner from CT.  And it will be worse in January when Florida joins PB.  It will reduce state jackpots in CT and Florida, among other states.

Does anybody really need to win 500 million?  Isn't 5 million enough?  Even after taxes a 5 mill jackpot would still make you a multi- millionaire. Isn't that enough?  Most people playing the lottery are poor(like me) or struggling to stay middle class.  5 mill would be more than enough for me to start living the good life.

SC

Stack47

Quote: Originally posted by Spare Change on Sep 12, 2008

I am against any mergings of these multi state lotteries.  If anything I wish some of these states would scale down and disconnect from these multi state lotteries.  Powerball and Megamillions cut into the state jackpots.  Here in CT, the lotto jackpot takes so long to get up to even 2 or 3 million because so many people are playing Powerball.  And on top of that hardly ever is there a Powerball winner from CT.  And it will be worse in January when Florida joins PB.  It will reduce state jackpots in CT and Florida, among other states.

Does anybody really need to win 500 million?  Isn't 5 million enough?  Even after taxes a 5 mill jackpot would still make you a multi- millionaire. Isn't that enough?  Most people playing the lottery are poor(like me) or struggling to stay middle class.  5 mill would be more than enough for me to start living the good life.

SC

I Agree!

And believe most regular lottery players would be more than satisfied winning $5 to $10 million. Most the states selling $20 raffle tickets sold out quickly because there were more chances to win $1 millon.

When Powerball makes their changes in January the overall chance of winning something will be lowered but will still be over 1 winner for every 30 tickets sold. With huge number of possible combination, we won't see many time when 3, 4, or 5 players split a jackpot.

Editgap

Nonsense.

Can you imagine a terminal for a global lottery at your local neighborhood store next to your national lottery terminal machine because lotteries are that important to survival.

savagegoose's avatarsavagegoose

this seems to come up every year or two, i wish they would get on with it and stop yapping about it. either give us a world wide lotto. or go away. I dont think it would be that hard to implement, mainly just printing new entry coupons and programming the new game onto the computer.  taxes would be paid on based on the local the ticket was sold.

 

As the article said, people drop the smaller state games for the larger multi state games. Thats the price state lotto pays for getting in on the big draws. Ill take any win i can get, bigger the better.

 

i for one would play, just never expect to win.

Spare Change

Quote: Originally posted by Stack47 on Sep 12, 2008

I Agree!

And believe most regular lottery players would be more than satisfied winning $5 to $10 million. Most the states selling $20 raffle tickets sold out quickly because there were more chances to win $1 millon.

When Powerball makes their changes in January the overall chance of winning something will be lowered but will still be over 1 winner for every 30 tickets sold. With huge number of possible combination, we won't see many time when 3, 4, or 5 players split a jackpot.

Stack,

I agree with you about the raffles.  I wish CT would have a raffle, so I wouldn't have to travel out of state to play one.  I would be plenty happy just winning 1 mill, plus with the raffles you know when the numbers are drawn there will be a certain number of jackpot winners, unlike a lotto game that could drag on for months with no jackpot winner.

 

SC

Badger's avatarBadger

The odds against hitting the jp on something that is designed to produce those size jps is going to stagger the players when they finally see it.   Personally, I wouldn't bother playing.  Five hundred million is way, way WAY more than anyone needs anyway.

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